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Sunday, July 7, 2013

The Elite Mercenaries

The testimonies of men and women trained as specialists in covert
operations, elite assassins hired either to eliminate crime leaders or to fight
the army, depending on who’s your employer at the time are raw and insightful.These are the voices of the new mercenaries,
a product of the market of violence that the country has turned itself
into.Their narratives were made
exclusively to representative Ricardo
Monreal who included it in his book Escuadrones De La Muerte En México
(Death Squads in Mexico) (House of Representatives,2013) from which this
article is taken from.

Juan Ignacio, 30, formed a current part of an elite group of the Mexican
Navy.He joined the security force in
2007, a few weeks after having abandoned the Heroica Escuela Naval Militar de
Antón Lizardo, in Veracruz, by express invitation by one of his physical
coaches and teachers…not having completed his studies was not an obstacle for
his recruitment; His skills in handling weapons and his good physical condition
made him a suitable candidate.

At the naval base in the port of Veracruz, he was called to appear…with
clothes and training equipment because he would be at a distant location for
three weeks.With a group of 14 more
youths he would set off the next day at a farm in the Huasteca veracruzana
region, an hour from the town of Álamos, which is only accessible by a dirt
road heading towards the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range.Before arriving, he noticed two marine
checkpoints guarding the entrances.

The farm is actually a training camp at the base of the mountain, with a
central house and dormitories around it, and five sections or distinct areas:

1) the shooting range

2) the obstacle clearance field

3) the area of detecting, arming and disarming explosives

4) the scaling and rappelling area

5) an area for motor vehicle use, from dirt bikes to armored vehicles,
where testing of armored vehicles in motion, intercepting them and immobilizing
them with high caliber weapons such as grenade launchers and rocket
launchers.Here they also teach how to
protect and face against ambushes and surprise attacks.

The training in Álamos would consist of the first of the three courses
over a period of a year and a half.A
month after that, Juan Ignacio would be leaving to Colombia for his second
course.On this occasion, the group
consisted of 22 youths who arrived in three distinct groups: eight were
marines, seven were army personnel, and seven were federal police officers.Only one night was spent in Bogotá to then
assemble for four months to the province of Tolima, at the facilities of the
National Police Training and Operations of Colombia.

The training techniques focused on assault and capture of drug
traffickers and high-profile criminals entrenched in hilly areas, caves and
strongholds with private armies at their disposal.They were also taught to infiltrate these
same paramilitary groups, to identify clandestine training camps, to carry out
covert assault operations, to dismantle synthetic drug laboratories, to detect
illegal camouflaged crop fields hidden in jungles and hills, to handle
explosives, to jump from moving vehicles or from low flying helicopters, to
treat the wounded, to spy and counterspy, to identify designs and structures
with false bottoms and to survive for days hidden without food in harsh
geographical areas.

The third course took place in the United States, in the state of
Arizona during the fall of 2008 for a period of 12 weeks.The training focused on prevention,
detection, neutralization and destruction of terrorist threats, be they
objects, people, or civilian groups.There,
Juan Ignacio learned the doctrine that terrorism and drug trafficking represent
the same level of security threat; He was also instructed in intelligence,
counterintelligence, tracking, processing sensitive information, and encrypting
language techniques.He was also taught
to manage physical and psychological crises.

Also how to “scientifically and psychologically torture the enemy, to
not leave any marks or evidence.”In
all, the course was taught by bilingual Hispanic officers of the navy and army
of the United States.

Having successfully completed the three courses allowed Juan Ignacio to
formally join one of the two basic elite commandos that the Mexican Navy has
since at least 2008.According to the
youth, one of these groups is aimed at pursing, fighting and to “eliminate”
leaders of drug trafficking, guerillas, and terrorism through covert operations
without the involvement of any officially recognized state force:

“When we perform an operation, we are strictly forbidden to identify
ourselves as marines or to provide an explanation to someone.Simply, through some official channels, some
of our bosses warn the police or the military commanders of the region that we
are a group of Special Forces and to be on alert, in case we require their
support.We just notify, we do not ask
for permission.”

The second elite group would be specialized in one function: “To
eliminate the leaders of Los Zetas, especially those who deserted from the
army”…It would be made up of over 600 members trained in Mexico and abroad:

“Amongst us we know them as Los Matazetas.When the video of Los Matazetas from Veracruz
came out we had no doubt that they were our fellow Marines, dedicated
exclusively to eliminate these thugs.Even the one in the middle who appears to be the leader and is making
the presentation is a companion who is easily identifiable by those who are
part of the Special Forces group.”

Juan Ignacio has participated in
several high impact operations in recent years in cities such as Mexico City, Monterrey, Puebla,
Guadalajara, Tijuana, Culiacán, Matamoros (in Tamaulipas), San
Fernando, and Cancún.The one most satisfactorily
remembered by him is with the persecution and elimination of Ezequiel Cárdenas
Guillén, Tony Tormenta, in Matamoros, Tamaulipas on November 5, 2010:

Ezequiel Cárdenas
Guillén (Tony Tormenta)

“It was four hours of persecution and
confrontation.There were about 50
deaths including Gulf Cartel hit men, marines, and military soldiers (The
official report said only 10 deaths).He
had already escaped from us once, in the middle of another confrontation with
the Navy, but this time he was unable to escape.We received reinforcements from the Mexican
Army and U.S. Special Agents, who had that bastard well monitored.But the first round of attack and assault was
formed by us, the Marines.”

It’s
the same group of Special Forces who chased and gunned down Arturo Beltrán
Leyva, El Barbas, in Cuernavaca, Morelos, on December 16, 2009:

"El Barbas"

“I wish I could’ve participated in that operation, but I found myself
frank.However, my companions told me
details.He had with him bodyguards who
were former military personnel and people who were very bloodthirsty.They managed to get him out of Tepoztlan, but
not the condo in Cuernavaca.Intelligence had him well tracked for days, by his cell phones and
shoes.”

- “By his shoes?”

-“ Yeah, they had a tracking device.They had been given to him by one of his trusted guards two weeks prior
and he wore them everywhere.He died
wearing them.”

A soldier during an operation

…In
the official operations, the elite group of the Navy performs with his
fatigues, camouflaged with gray and green spots on a beige background, and with
helmets of the same color.Juan Ignacio
says “These operations are often videotaped and almost always accompanied by
one or two U.S. agents that monitor the operation or provide information about
the location of targets.”

But
he refers to other operations, unofficial ones, where they are dressed entirely
in black, with boots, helmets, and masks of the same color, with no other
identification other than a phosphorescent symbol pasted on the left shoulder,
“It can be a tiger claw, a weapon or the face of an animal.We don’t know the symbol until we are out in
combat, so that we can have it fresh in our minds and to not confuse ourselves
in case our enemies are dressed similarly.”

The
black uniform is used frequently by the elite group that is in charge of
fighting Los Zetas…The difference in uniform is not only distinct from the type
of operation being performed, but also on the outcome: The elite operations conducted
with the official uniform and recorded, if successful, should conclude with the
presentation of the detainees, dead or alive.They are actions of the state itself.The black or “blind” operations are clearly intended for eliminating
targets.They use paramilitary
extermination strategies.

Juan Ignacio
receives a salary of nearly $30,000 pesos a month for his work, a “risk bonus”
in every action that goes from $10,000 to $20,000 additional pesos, and an
unquantifiable bonus known internally as “spoils of war”, i.e. cash, jewelry,
or weapons seized and unreported.

He doesn’t
believe that he’ll spend his whole life in the elite corps of the Mexican Navy:

-“Would you offer your services to the highest bidder, like a private soldier
or elite fighter, as the so-called Blackwater do?”

-“A Mexican Blackwater?I had not
thought of that…it doesn’t sound bad.I
have to live somehow.”

“El Rambo” and La
Compañía

Ignacio joined
the ranks of the Mexican Army at the age of 20…Soon he gained a place amongst
his companions of the military command of Ciudad Victoria, and a nickname: El
Rambo, for his size, courage, and skill in handling assault and high caliber
rifles.

He advanced
quickly through the ranks of the military: Private, Corporal, Second Sergeant,
and First Sergeant.In this time, he got
married and became a part of a department of social interest in the same
city.He earned $8,000 pesos a month.

One day he told
his wife that a Major who had retired from the army was looking for him to
offer him a civil job:head of security
of a cargo transport company running from Cancún, Quintana Roo to Matamoros,
Tamaulipas.The starting salary was
$30,000 pesos plus benefits, with the ability to move your way up.

El Rambo then
recalled the blankets that often appeared in the vicinity of some quarters of
Tamaulipas:“Tired of Maruchan soup? Of
punishments with boards and salary of $3,000 pesos?Come and work for us.La Compañía.”

In the military
they knew that La Compañía was actually the name that Los Zetas presented
themselves with, also known among the public as “los de la última letra” (the
last letter).Neither Ignacio nor his
wife Iliana imagined that the transport company was one of the various facades
that La Compañía had.

The first three
months passed by normally.Ignacio
supervised the cargo of the trucks making sure that they didn’t arrive “milked
out”, which could be anything from furniture to automotive parts or
containers.The latter were the ones
that made him tenser.Sometimes he had
to monitor them personally and travel in vehicles like a “commando” from Tamaulipas
to Quintana Roo or vice versa.That is
how his boss asked him, the manager of the company, who was a former Major from
the Army.

One day, Ignacio
informed his wife that he has received a promotion and must lie in Monterrey
for some time.This town was the matrix
of the transport company.The radical
change of El Rambo took place there.He
started coming home to his house in Ciudad Victoria in new trucks…, with high
caliber weapons, and of course with wads of dollars.El Rambo then entrusted his wife what his new
job was: to collect debts, to rob or execute people “who wanted to cross La
Compania” by means of “kidnapping”.

The stay in
Monterrey lasted almost one year.During
that time the former First Sergeant gave to his wife almost $60,000 to
save.One day he informed her that he
would be close, that he switched… to Ciudad Mante, Tamaulipas, since he was in
charge of a training camp of La Compañía.Ignacio and an ex Colombian soldier, who he had met would be the
instructors of the farm in El Mante.The
objective was to form, every three weeks, hitmen cells or paramilitaries at the
service of Los Zetas.

The ranch was
given to El Rambo by a head of a plaza that was known as El Güero AFI o El
Licenciado.They were concentrated there
every three or four weeks, groups of 30 to 35 youths who received training
similar to the assault troops of the Mexican Army.

The guys would
get up early to do physical exercises; after, they would go to the shooting
range where they would learn the handling of handguns and assault weapons;
knives, 9mm handguns, and M-16 rifles.

Afterwards they
received submission techniques used against victims and grappling techniques,
to end off with the handling of armored vehicles, the interception of
objectives on the move, the practice of ambushing the enemy and retreating and
exiting from critical combat situations.

They also taught
them to block roads, burn vehicles and bring up “walls” and circles of
protection to carry out escapes under emergency circumstances.All of these courses were taught by El Rambo and
the Colombian ex military soldier, Eddie, who had formed part of the
paratrooper group in his country, and later had actively participated in the
formation of the self-defense or paramilitary groups in Colombia.

In the ranch
there was…Several shacks around, previously inhabited by workers but today
housed the recruits of El Rambo and Eddie: a group of 32 youth hit men, of
Mexican and Central American origin…Just El Rambo, in one year, had trained
over 350 participants at the ranch in El Mante with paramilitary methods.

One evening on
July 2010, Iliana got a surprise visit at her house.Two unfriendly looking men came out of a
black Lincoln Navigator outside her house.“Are you the wife of El Rambo?”... “Yes”… “Please come with us, to the
University Hospital”.They left her in
front of the Forensic Medical Service in Ciudad Victoria and asked her to
identify whether any of the six bodies were that of her husband.

The six were
unrecognizable.The upper parts of their
bodies were completely burned, as if they had passed by a torch.Finally she noticed the tattoos: a scorpion
on his left ankle and a sea shell on the right.She came out to meet with the men from the black Lincoln…

“-What happened;
Who killed him?” “-The day before yesterday a Navy commando blew up the ranch;
most escaped, but those six didn’t.”

Today Iliana only
has the dollars that El Rambo was giving her for three years, the “life
insurance” of La Compañía; two children and an obsession: “Who took my
Rambo?I know he was wrong, but the
government shouldn’t have killed him that way, like an animal, with a
flamethrower…, that’s why there are prisons.”

Krav Maga Commandos

The ad published
in El Universal in mid October 2010 seemed to appeal Marycarmen: “International
Security Company offers a career path and is the top performer.Training and professional training for
protecting third parties and yourself.Life insurance.Men and women of
18-40 years old.Able to travel and
reside outside Mexico City.Income at
$18,000-$35,000 a month. “It didn’t have a phone number or a contact
address.Only an email, rrhh@prodigy.net.mx
, where those interested can send in their resume with a photo.

Marycarmen had
just become a widow.Her husband was a
Federal Police Officer who had died in a shootout with members of La Familia
Michoacana near Apatzingán in an ambush...With a four year old girl, she now
had to face life with anything she had on hand: a natural and familiar inclination
for anything related to security...Two hours after sending in her resume she
received a reply:
“Show up tomorrow at 11:00 hours at the address...with this email form”.On the mezzanine of the building was the directory
of the office.Before going up, she
looked up the name of the company that headed it: “Israelíes A. C.”

They presented
two examinations (psychometric and aptitude) and was interviewed by a recruiter
of Israeli origin.Right then and there
they told her that she had been approved and would move on to the next test,
the most important thing: training for five weeks in Krav Maga, the Israeli
martial art, and handling weapons.The
next day she had to go to the premises of the Police Academy in Tlalnepantla, Mexico
State, next to the prison Barrientos.She would go out on Saturday afternoon and
return on Sunday before six o’clock in the afternoon...” She would receive
2,000 pesos per week.

Krav Maga (“contact
combat” in Hebrew) is the official system of fighting and self defense used by the
defense and security forces of Israel...After the creation of the State of
Israel...it was adopted...by the Israel Defense Forces, the Israeli Police and
its various units and counterterrorism special forces.

...Marycarmen
arrived at the prison Barrientos with
37 other recruits, eight women and 29 men.The workouts were hard and harsh.They had paramilitary discipline, similar to the training in
Israel.Physical conditioning, self
defense, punching with knuckles, taking down, immobilizing the enemy from
behind, disarming the attacker, observing the field of action, covering weak flanks,
and classes of arms.

Special Forces, undercover operations

Here you had to
disassemble and reassemble guns, handguns, machine guns and assault rifles in
less than 10 seconds, run with three weapons on the body: a rifle, a handgun on
the belt, and a knife attached to the leg.

They needed to
distinguish between the cartridge of a handgun and the clip of a rifle
magazine.They were also trained to
rappel up walls, slide along the ground, breaking down doors quietly, and
handling basic explosives.

Two classes
caught the attention of Marycarmen: identifying weaknesses in armored cars and facilities,
and the recreation of an attack, with similarities in which the PRI candidate
of Tamaulipas, Rodolfo Torre Cantú would suffer from.She learned things that you should never do
in these situations; ways to face armed commandos and how to get a guarded
individual out of a danger zone.

Not just anyone
would finish the training.The first
week four dropped out; the second week three; the third week two, and the
fourth week two more.26 participants
completed the course.Before them, a
group of 22 recruits were the first generation.Nonetheless they were missing 32 more members, because the Krav Maga
commando set aside between 80 and 100 members for the governor Egidio Torre
Cantú and his family, as was stated by the head trainer, a former Israeli
soldier who has lived in our country for over a decade.

According to the
instructor, the commandos of Krav Maga (groups of 30-40 members) are helped by
entrepreneurs of the Jewish community in Mexico, by businessmen in Nuevo Leon
and Guanajuato.Training has also been
given to elite members of the elite troops of some municipal and sate police
forces; but the most numerous are those who have been prepared for the guarding
of governors in the State of Mexico (150 members), Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí and
Nuevo León.

The Krav Maga
commandos are the prototypical paramilitaries of the world, for the
versatility, agility and for the lethal responsiveness.In Mexico they operate with absolute
discretion, with minimal regulation and uncontrolled monitoring of personnel in
charge of training and their recruits...You cannot deduct the assumption that
they can cross or have crossed the thin line of becoming an official
paramilitary group, and enroll in becoming a paramilitary mercenary group, that
of which organized crime thrives on.

89 comments:

There in lies the danger of training all these special forces commandos of Mexico : once finished with their military careers they start working for a criminal organization and train killers for them. It is an irony that a marine who participated in the killing of CDG capo Tony Tormenta is himself killed by the same military that trained him, and that he worked for. In the U.S.A. ex-soldier's get job training or can take their skills to good paying law enforcement jobs, or stay in the military and receive a decent paycheck. What recourse do former military have: working for the Zetas?! Some of the best special forces in the world come from the IDF. I think Mexico's cartels think so since they always seem to hire them to train their gatilleros. Not just Mexico's politicians and entrepreurs. They should remember though that behind Israel is the U.S.A. Without the U.S.A.'s support, Israel doesn't exist; in fact, Israel is really a colony of the U.S.A. since our govt. and American Jews fund its government/military. The only difference between Israel and Puerto Rico is that Israel has sovereignty over it's government/military and Puerto Rico does not.

Damn, makes me want to join and become one of those killing machines. But I want to be a Universal Soldier with a Cyborg eye. Na fuck those gun-ho-mos. Joos training paramilitaries in Mexico? I believe Celerino Castillo III warned us this was going on but nobody wanted to believe him. He also divulged that they were in cases specifically training Mexico's military to take over all the drug trafficking.

Is it possible for someone that has tactical school experience or some infantry experience in an army learn spanish and come to Veracruzana region and ask to join ? Other than being in shape and handling a gun is there an age limit if one is in perfect health ? What are the selections like ? Thanks Very interested

Los Matazetas were CJNG in Veracruz. Originally they might have been Zetas. If you recall the supposed capture of El Azul in Guadalajara in May, they actually captured the leader of CJNG in Veracruz El Naca.

ok I have a question if this military training of drug cartels is so true then why is it IN EVERY SINGLE EXECUTION VIDEO THE VICTIMS AND CRIMINALS ARE OUT OF SHAPE? THEIR EITHER FAT OR MALNOURISHED LOOKING I think this is just more narco propaganda to make em appear stronger than they are.

What this guy said ^ ... those you see in those videos, normally end up dead and are the ones that are always on coce and doing the nasty shitty work like cutting humens into pieces. A professional well never do something like that.

I think only the top brass is made of former soldiers. Beside, most of the time when you watch these execution videos, the victims are informers, spotters, drug dealers for another cartel, hardware suppliers or stuff like that.

And of course don't forget these videos represent only a fraction of the horrific events that take place. There must be even deeper shits going on and we'll never hear about.

Most of the people getting executed are halcones and the like, I don´t doubt that cartels recruit former militars but those are just a few, it´s not like they are picky either, their big recruitment pool is the young, poor and ignorant, people willing to risk their lives for a few bucks and a very unlikely chance of surviving longer than a few months and perhaps making it up the ranks.

This is one of the most ridiculous articles I have ever read, a clear he said she said. A real waste of my time on reading this.

If this was real, and the death squads had some real training on all the thing mention on this article, the criminals will be a lot more accurate on their targets, and they will not go around killing low level criminals like they usually do.

Los Matazetas, CDG, and the Zetas! Who have they really killed?

Los Beltranes and the Sinaloa cartels were a lot more accurate when killing their enemies.

But anyway, you people go ahead and believe what you want, I will take all this with a grain of salt.

Did you skip the part where it says he did not complete his studies, this being that their not the brightest color in the box. Their just muscle, that know how to use a weapon. Besides that no brain. Maybe that's why they weren't so accurate.

LOL Juan Ignacio receives a salary of nearly $30,000 pesos a month for his work, a “risk bonus” in every action that goes from $10,000 to $20,000 additional pesos, and an unquantifiable bonus known internally as “spoils of war”, i.e. cash, jewelry, or weapons seized and unreported.

"Yeah right, all those arrested and the ones killed look real well trained, they are all fat and many look like drug addicts. "

And so if your comment.

Again, you don't know everything that's happening there, you only see a very small fraction of it, a small fraction that these cartels allow others to see, there have been some other testimonies from former sicarios or other people who clearly said they were former militaries, and their main purpose was to either guard the capos or doing assassinations. Just because you saw some videos showing fat men and old women (or even kids, saddly) being beheaded make you think this is only that kind of person they're dealing with ?

Some people here can't even see further their nose, so i wonder how they can even try to understand how cartels work...

reply to July 8, 2013 at 8:11 PM true but neither do you and I am very certain the fact is while there is a small nucleus of ex military/police and an even smaller nucleus of intelligent people the majority of drug cartel members are inexperienced,uneducated,unfit,low self esteemed economic materialists/former or current members of a street gang.

maybe, and I'm just throwing thi out there, but just maybe, the Mexican military should thrown in a class or two about ethics and doing the right thing.. oh, this is the Mexican gov were talking about. nevermind..

Cartels work just like the military. You have your conventional forces and your special forces. You have tacticians, scientists, logistics, guards, hit teams, spies/look-outs, etc.

Spies he said, special forces he said, tacticians he said, logistics he said. Hard to imagine what he is talking about since the criminals aren't able to get to their intended targets. (their main enemies) thats why the kill low level criminals, street vendors and drug addicts.

Just like the military, once out of basic training, you have some fat asses and such. They don't all stay in top shape after all that eating and drinking (beer bellies) with their new cash flow.

New cash flow he said, lol most of the sicarios get promised a salary of $1554 dollars a month and they get paid once a month, that way if you get killed they don't have to pay you. Most of the sicarios don't last long, they get killed by the military or by the enemy.

Also, people in the videos are mostly low level street dealers or some taco vender killed to send messages.

To send a message he said. Mmmm what message will that be? Yeah the massage is loud and clear, we can't get to the real boss so we kill these fools just to show the enemy that we are killers. But remember that according to this article they are very well trained ELITE MERCENARIES.

Bullshit! They are not trained in HALO/HAHO parachuting, underwater fighting, underwater demolitions, evasion and escape, three point ambushes, escaping from inside an ambush kill zone, explosives cooking before detonation, det cord, c-4,semtex handling, liquid nitro demolitions, they are not ELITE.

I'm talking about cartel members, or are you going to compare a stinky ass drug trafficker cheap ass killer with our Navy SEALS, Army Deltas, Air Force pararescue or Army Special Forces or Rangers? Strap an mc-4 to one of this punks and drop that c-130 ramp at 36,000 ft and tell him to make that HALO over the Pacific Ocean and let's see what happens, I bet you that punk is going to shit his pants.

Links to authoritiesThere are reports that Los Pepes had ties to some members of the Colombian National Police, especially the Search Bloc (Bloque de Búsqueda), with whom they exchanged information in order to execute their activities against Escobar. According to documents released to the public by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2008, "Colombian National Police director general Miguel Antonio Gómez Padilla said 'that he had directed a senior CNP intelligence officer to maintain contact with Fidel Castaño, paramilitary leader of Los Pepes, for the purposes of intelligence collection.'"Los Pepes is also strongly tied to Centra Spike, a covert ops group that was heading, in large part, the hunt for Pablo Escobar.[citation needed] There is evidence that Los Pepes acted on CIA/DEA/Delta Force intelligence to launch their missions.

Being part of a military doesnt necessarily translate into being intelligent, including the U.S. military. The U.S. armed forces, except the Airforce, only requires a h.s. diploma/GED. You can obtain a diploma threw resource courses. It doesn't take brain surgery to become a good soldier. If everybody was a Rhodes scholar, then nobody would join an armed group and put their lives at risk. In the U.S. armed forces to move up the top ranks it is required to have a higher education; that's what required to become a general, or any high ranking, engineers, surgeons, some special forces etc. Now quasi-military agencies like CIA special-ops, FBI SWAT, detectives are full of intelligent people since it is required to have a bachelor degree before even being accepted. Most of the cartel members are uneducated and poor that for the most part will only serve as cannon fodder.

That's bullshit, to join the Air Force you only need a high school diploma or GED. Any branch of the US Armed Forces requires that you have a bachelor's degree to do certain jobs or get qualified for OCS and become an officer or warrant officer, or you think the US Army is going to let you fly an Apache or A-10 just with a high school diploma. Now if you think that the FBI or CIA are full of intelligent people you are wrong 80% of them federal agents including border patrol or us customs are fucking ignorant sob's. Earning a bachelor's degree doesn't mean they are intelligent, depends I what's your mayor., like if some of them earned a bachelor's or master's degree in mathematics, physics, chemistry or biology etc, etc they they are some intelligent persons, but if they earned a bachelor's in physical education or journalism or something like that they are no geniuses.

To join the U.S. Airforce you need a diploma/GED + 15 hours of college level credits, and pass the entrance exam. You can't just enlist with a h.s. diploma. You said just what I meant, that to do certain careers, or obtain certain ranks you need a college level education. That's what I put about 'In the U.S. Armand Forces'. Read what I wrote a little closer. I believe you have to have a college level education to be able to learn to operate the highly computerized highly lethal Apache helicopter. Of course you can't just have a diploma! Are you kidding me! Comparing FBI and CIA agents to Customs and Border Patrol agents. Thats an insult to the FBI/CIA. FBI/CIA Agents are intelligent and highly educated, required to have a bachelor degree to even make an application, people who are smart enough to traffic illegal drugs and make billions in the case of the CIA. Just ask Bush 41 about that! As far as the Border and Customs agents are concerned, their smart enoughto pass their entrance exams and training courses, and earn a good salary to support their families with. Anybody with a bachelor degree is going to be a little more intelligent that non-college educated people. You have to pass math and English courses. That's work! However, you don't have to be a college educated person obtain intelligence-just ask Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Chapo Guzman, Z-40, etc. As far as CIA agents not having intelligence is concerned-I'd like to see tell them in their face. Some of those guys are trained killers!

Well, I didn't know about the Air Force requirement of a hs/ged diploma +15 college hour credits. That's new to me, I served from 1968 to 1975 in the US Army and back then the Air Force didn't require any college credits.

Those marines or should i say special forces guys are crazy. They went into Arturo Beltran Leyva condo and neutralized all six suspects. El rojo the same one that decapitaded nine military soldiers in Chilpancingo,Guerrero also went down.They died trying to protect their boss. Arturo died with his rifle in hand,Ar 15.

Also some marines died in that operation. I doubt it was only one,as the goverment says.

Part of the risk involved in being a soldier is death. That goes hand in hand with the life of a soldier of any kind. That's why soldiers tend to loot, plunder, and pillage since the grim reaper might be paying a visit at any moment.

dumb asses on here,the original special forces for protecting cardenas fools!! and training the canon fodder to atleast give them a chance in a gun fight,and if any major problems in certain La compania turf,cardenas send original zetas to fix....thats if not too dangerous where none come back...and too keep everyone in check = the whole empire of La Compania and if no one believe me, SMO (suk me off)